Course Delivery

Delivery Type

Delivery length / details

Seminar

44 x 2 Hour Seminars

Assessment

Assessment Type

Assessment length / details

Proportion

Semester Assessment

Continuous assessment through team work and individual work
Team Component (60% of final grade) includes 1) Team-led seminar (20% of team component); 2) Team project including development of web-site (with negotiable options) contributing upto 1000 words per team member (30% of tem component); 3) Team presentation (50% of team component);
Individual component (40% of final grade): written report on personal development, critical skills development and teamwork (1500 words: 100% of component).

100%

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this module students should be able to:

- Analyse key problems in chosen and negotiated academic issues.

- Present an argument in varying formats in writing and speaking.

- Identify strategies for individual and team roles within academic tasks and projects.

Brief description

This module covers a wide range of academic communication issues. This module involves students in team-based work through which they consider aspects of writing, discussion and presentation skills through student negotiated self-managed projects. Teaching and learning is mediated through planning and discussion of the project topics towards the development of project web-sites. Web text is compared with other formats for academic and professional writing to consider different styles and audiences. During the module students will be engaged in team led seminars and discussions that will take place both in the classroom and by video conference. As a result of critical discussions, further work is done on a comparison of written and oral styles of communication towards group presentation of projects. Individual students are required to work on a reflective written report about individual aspects of the team work.

Content

Identifying and proposing team based research projects (topic analysis techniques, critical review techniques for published text and web content, defining purposes and objectives, audience analysis and awareness).

Basics of web design for academic writing.

Awareness of conventions of academic communication face to face and through video conferencing.

Comparative academic writing for essays, reports and web content and the differences between written and spoken language for discussions and presentations.

Language development in the context of academic and professional interests: identifying strategies to independently inform a critical profile of language needs.

Module Skills

Skills Type

Skills details

Communication

Takes place in all tasks. Language development is facilitated and focused through the tasks and students are encouraged to adopt autonomous strategies for individual and peer learning.

Improving own Learning and Performance

Through reflecting on their own performance, the group¿s performance and how their own learning and performance affects the group¿s performance, students identify an agenda for self improvement.

Information Technology

Web development, PowerPoint development, Video conferencing, occasional use of video film for documentary based interviews as support for presentations, management of IT resources towards transferability of skills to all academic contexts.

Personal Development and Career planning

Students reflect on networking skills for projects, transferability back to home institute settings in English and in translation and the use of these skills for postgraduate education and identification of future professional interests.

Problem solving

Through all communication tasks that take place in class towards facilitation of independent strategies for team work and individual roles outside class. To be accountable to and for the group.

Research skills

Independent and team based planning for topic nomination, proposal, initial planning, team meetings, reading, analyzing and setting criteria for project structure, use of technology in learning and communication, ability to plan, write and present for a variety of academic purposes that lead to transferability of skills to future professional contexts.

Subject Specific Skills

Linguistic and rhetorical analysis and application in academic and professional communication.

Team work

Takes place in all tasks. Assessment of teamwork is a central component of the module. Students are assessed through criteria for cooperative and collaborative learning ensuring that students are responsible to and for the group and keep accurate, mutually agreed records of levels of involvement in D3. This is cross referenced with presentations and individual written assignments.